Quid

When it opened with "Bang a Gong" by T-Rex, I know The Bank Job was my type of movie. Based on the true 1971 robbery where suddenly the papers stopped covering the crime and money was never recovered, the movie follows a small gang of London friends as they decide to break in and then have to deal with the desperate consequences. The period detail, starting with the music, is much appreciated.

There are two kinds of heist movies. One kind works to trick the viewer -- think the "they messed up / oh no they planned this" moments of the Oceans movies, or the gut-punch (gut-shot) twist in Reservoir Dogs. This is the a different kind, an anatomy of a heist or conjecture of a heist following some characters you like led by Jason Stratham and Saffron Burrows' remarkable lips and cheekbones.

The theme of The Bank Job is not unlike that of another 1970's period piece, American Gangster: corruption. Something about that decade... But from the adulerous underwater frolicking that opens the picture through the corrupt cops, government ministers in brothels ("Spitzer" shouted someone from the audience), and even the touch of attraction threatening Stratham's marriage, this is a world where everyone is defined by their degree of corruption, where they draw (or erase) the line.

The movie isn't very profound, but it moves quickly, delivers genre thrills, and has us rooting for the good (bad) guys.

Now was that so much to ask?